Despite this
promising statistic, my colleagues and I were recently informed at an
anti-bullying workshop that bullying is on the rise nationwide. The presenter
did not provide any references or documentation to support her claim. Instead,
she showed us a heartbreaking video about bullying victims who had committed
suicide and told us that 3,000 teens commit suicide each year, implying that
teen suicide is primarily caused by bullying.

There is now
a sizable anti-bullying movement and with it a growing network of nonprofits
and community-based organizations devoted to stamping out the problem.
Education can help reduce bullying, but only when the information is accurate
and reliable. Exaggeration and misinformation may lead to larger donations and
greater media attention, but they also unnecessarily fuel parents’ and
teachers’ existing anxieties and fears, while drawing resources and attention
away from other threats to children’s wellbeing.

Youth Suicide Rates are the Lowest Ever
Recorded

All teen
suicides are tragic, but not all teen suicides can be linked to bullying. Moreover,
teen suicide is on the decline, with a rate today that is less than half what
it was 40 years ago. It is also far lower than it is for adults. Only 1 in 2500 teens (13-19) kill themselves, whereas 1 in
900 adults do. The suicide
rate for 10-14 year-olds was only 0.9 per 100,000 in 2007, and only 6.9 per
100,000 for 15-19 year-olds, according to NIH data. However, the suicide rate jumped to 12.7 per 100,000
for 20-24 year-olds, well after kids have left high school, suggesting that factors
other than school bullying are at play. For example, chronic depression and
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can result from physical, emotional or
sexual abuse growing up, and can manifest long after moving away from home. Indeed,
youth advocate Mike Males says that a history of living in an abusive family is a far more common cause of teen suicide than
bullying.

How Prevalent is Bullying?

Even when bullying
does not result in suicide, it can still be a traumatizing experience that
negatively impacts self-esteem and academic success. Good Education reports that 160,000 students avoid school each day because of
fears of being bullied. Furthermore, almost 40% of high school freshmen report
daily bullying, while 70% of all high school students report regular online
bullying according to Good.

These are
shockingly high numbers, but they do not tell the whole story.

If 40% of
high school freshmen are experiencing vicious daily bullying, we should be
seeing an epidemic of suicides, depression and low self-esteem as a result. Yet
none of these problems comes close to 40%. As mentioned above, the suicide rate
for 15-19 year olds is extremely low (0.0069%), while the depression rate for
13-18 year olds is 5.6%, according to a 2006 study by E. Jane Costello and
colleagues that tested
the teen depression “epidemic” hypothesis.

There are
several ways to explain this paradox.

Some victims
of bullying have the friends, social support and self-confidence to survive the
experience without lasting trauma. Some, no doubt, shake it off and move on without
letting it bother them. Others may feel bad for a little while and then continue
with their lives.

Not every
child has this capability, of course. Many are already isolated and alienated
and have low self-esteem before the bullying even begins. This not only
diminishes their resiliency, but it is also sometimes the reason they are
targeted by bullies in the first place. Indeed, it is likely that some of the
bullying victims who do attempt suicide may be suffering from other problems in
addition to bullying, like a lack of emotional support or outright abuse at
home.

Another
explanation for this paradox is that those surveyed used an overly broad interpretation
of bullying that encompasses all forms of teasing, criticizing and other
unpleasant social interactions. Everyone experiences tactless or insensitive
comments from time to time that can be very hurtful. We have all received
unsolicited criticism (sometimes accurate) that made us feel bad. But these are
not bullying and calling them such does not help reduce bullying nor make children
any safer.

Bullying involves
the repeated and deliberate abuse of an individual by exploiting a real or
perceived power imbalance, like when a larger kid regularly knocks the books
out of the hands of a smaller one, or when popular students repeatedly spread
rumors in order to humiliate a less popular student. Intellectual bullying can
occur when an “A” student refuses to let a teammate participate because he is
perceived to be dumber and might mess up their team grade.

This
definition of bullying does not include many behaviors that are equally
dangerous or traumatizing. Homophobia, sexism and racism, for example, can be
expressed in ways that do not directly target any individual, yet they can
still have a negative impact on the self-esteem and physical safety of
individuals. For example, a student who publicly proclaims that “homosexuality
is gross,” has not bullied any individual student, but the message that is
heard by everyone is that there is something wrong being gay, something that
can undermine the self-esteem and security of gay students. If teachers allow
this to occur without intervening, it could escalate into bullying
or homophobic violence.

Yet anti-gay
bullying is NOT the biggest threat facing gay youth, according to Mike Males. A study by the Centers for Disease
Control (CDC) of
young gay men who had contemplated suicide found that the most important
reasons for their suicidal thoughts were drug and alcohol abuse by their
parents, poverty, unemployment and childhood sexual or physical abuse.

Rather than
obsessing about bullying per se, it would be more productive for educators to learn
to recognize when students are having emotional or social problems and provide
the appropriate support or interventions, regardless of the cause. It should
not matter why a child is being beat up. It is still the responsibility of
school personnel to intercede. Likewise, a good teacher should take action whenever
she hears racist or sexist comments, as well as homophobic or bullying comments,
not only to maintain a productive academic environment, but to help all
students feel safe and welcome in the classroom.